1. Peel tomatoes – put in a bowl, cover with boiling water and stand for a few minutes. Then stab with a fork and holding by fork peel skin off with a knife. 2. Core tomatoes and cut into pieces and de-seed3. Chop finely and put into a serving bowl4. Shred basil leaves add to tomato5. Finely chop chives and add to tomato (I use kitchen scissors to shred basil and chop chives)6. Add verjuice7. Squeeze lemon or lime and add8. Stir9. Grind in pepper and salt to taste

1. Skin and debone the salmon.2. Cut into pieces and put into food processor and process for a few seconds (or blitz with a wand blender)3. Add egg white and process long enough to fully incorporate4. Gently open flower, just enough to snip off the stamens using kitchen scissors. Be careful not to damage petals. Discard stamens.5. Put salmon mixture into a piping bag.6. Pipe mixture into the flowers – be quite firmly filled but be careful not to over fill

7. Put filled flowers in a steamer basket8. Any left over salmon mixture can be put into small dishes and also put into steamer.9. Steam for 10 minutes.10. Serve with tomato dressing.

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It is a glorious day. We were in Huse Bay, Waikeke but got woken early by a nasty roll that would shake our boarding platform so we (well Rob because I stayed in bed) moved. Then Rob had a nap and I went off for a kayak so feeling very virtuous. Pics are of the bay we are anchored in.

Oh dear, slept late and had an afternoon nap and still planning to go to bed early! Oh well, should be all caught up on sleep by the time I go back to work.

Weather has been better after the rain and wind warnings earlier this week. But we’ve stayed put – we did think about going fishing but I felt the need for a nap so we’ve stayed put.

For dinner we fired up the Cobb (a very cool compact BBQ) and had Cajun rubbed pork fillet (thanks Dana and Dave for the spices) with grilled eggplant, mushrooms, courgette and boiled new potatoes. Very yummy.

Weather and family stuff have kept us ashore, but finally we’ve escaped on Zinkwazi. Dunno where we are going yet – I want to get out to Great Barrier and Rob wants to go over to the Coromandel. So we’ll let the wind decide and get in some sailing.

Tomorrow we’ll do some fishing and start eating our way through all the provisions we laid in thinking we’d get out sailing with the boys!

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It was a wet gloomy day. Leaving Issy Bay, Auckland was shrouded in rain:

I counted off the land marks – Iliomana Rock (the stick thing) with Rangitoto behind:

Then Northern Leading, North Head, Bean Rock (which is a spectacular light house):

and then a hop skip and a jump and we were tying up in our berth at Westhaven. We did our usual clean up, washed down the decks, lifted the tender onto the deck, cleaned heads (bathroom) and galley (kitchen), closed all sea cocks (taps on holes in the boat used for various things such as letting water in to cool the engine and letting waste water out of the sink) double and triple checked that alll sea cocks were closed, coiled all ropes and checked all ropes that secure Zinkwazi to the berth were good I also packed up a lot of the food left over from last big sail to take home. And then the drive home to Hamilton.

We’ve had a fabulous day. Started off overcast but cleared and then got quite hot. Not enough wind to get in much of a sail but a good crossing of the Firth of Thames, including a visit by a dolphin – not that I saw it but I did get a pic of Rob looking for it off our bow.

Elephant Cove is just gorgeous and has already been added to our list of favorite anchorages. After we dropped the pick we dropped the kayaks overboard and went for a long kayak. Including catching up with Gordon on Aurora – we have not shared an anchorage for a while so it was good to see him again.

Aurora at anchor:

Wave rock formation in Elephant Cove:

Once we got back onto Zinkwazi we had a late lunch while we sprawled on the deck till it got too hot. Lunch was cheese and biscuits, smoked mussels, carrot and apple with aioli – very good.

Then we read and lolled around for the rest of the day.

For dinner we had meatloaf with baked potatoes. When my boys were little and I was short of money mince was a staple. Bolognese, lasagna, hamburgers, kofta, meatloaf and probably several I’ve forgotten. But every now and then I make meatloaf. I love it with HP sauce, but Zinkwazi is hiding the bottle I am sure is onboard so it was sauceless tonight. But oh so good with my two secret ingredients – rolled oats and tomato paste. Broccoli and green beans rounded out the meal. In fact I am having to cook extra vegetables these day because Rob is eating a full share and enjoying them. Who says a good woman can’t change a man?

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